The other FAB JOUR

When John Lennon first met them, he disparagingly said that girls don't play guitars. But that didn't stop England's first all-female band, The Liverbirds

- SARAH WHITELEY

Mary McGlory was just 16 years old when she first went to The Cavern Club in 1962 and saw The Beatles on stage. 'I was with three of my cousins, and we all turned to each other and said, "That's what we want to do!" says Mary, now 78, originally from Liverpool. 'There was just one problem: none of us knew how to play an instrument.'

Full of enthusiasm, the girls went to Hessys, the music shop where The Beatles had got their instruments, bought guitars on hire purchase and even told Mersey Beat, Liverpool's music newspaper, that they were England's first all-female band. They had pictures taken; a big article was published.

'A couple of weeks later we practised, but it was far harder than we thought,' Mary smiles. 'So we decided to give up.' That was when fate intervened. Because two other girls in Liverpool - Valerie Gell and Sylvia Saunders had had a similar idea.

'I'd met Val at the youth club and we'd gone to local dances, watching the bands on the stage,' says Sylvia Saunders, now 77. 'I went to her house and she got out her guitar. She was really good, so we decided to get a band together. My fingers were too small for the guitar frets, so we decided I'd play the drums. I had no clue what I was doing, though.' 

So when Valerie saw the aforementioned newspaper article, the pair decided to go to Mary's house. 'We asked if she was starting a band and she admitted, "Not really, I can't even play." But Val told her to go round to hers and she taught her,' Sylvia remembers.

While Mary's cousins dropped out, another cousin, Sheila McGlory, said she wanted to join, too. And so, the original line-up of The Liverbirds was formed.